Shared Journeys  are an integral part of our marriage of almost 23 years. In fact, my wife and I try to visit a new state in the USA every year on our anniversary.

I am going to use as an example our journey from August of 2008. This trip was a bit unusual, in that we were flying to Salt Lake City in Utah, then taking a bus trip with about 50 other people through some of our wonderful national parks an monuments between Salt Lake City and South Dakota.

The featured image is from the Badlands in South Dakota, near the end of the journey. I think it embodies the love and companionship that we share.

Instead of writing a travelog with pictures of all of the features seen along the way, I will show some of the pictures of the two of us, along with others that shared our journey. The scenery will only serve as a background.

Our first stop was in Salt Lake City. Here we got to meet everyone in the group and spend a day touring the many sites. We also got to watch a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir pictured below:

The second day we started out northward and made a stop at Bear Lake which straddles the Utah, Idaho border. Here is a shot of my wife Alice with one of our traveling companions, who happened to be a retired police detective from New York City. There were five female detectives taking this trip together. We learned that they were actually the first class of women allowed to take the detective exams in NYC but they were overlooked in the selection process that year, despite their exemplary performance. Only after the next class of female detectives had the same experience and sued the city, was our group considered for promotion. The were having quite a shared journey.

The next morning we woke up to the cold of the Rocky Mountains in Grand Teton National Park. You can check my blog for some scenic pictures of this trip. Here are a couple of pictures of the two of us and the group that morning, when we rafted down the Snake River:

The next day we were off to Yellowstone National Park. Here is a picture of a mass of people gathering for the next showing of Old Faithful geyser. Obviously, not everyone in the photo was on our bus trip.

While we are here, I will show you one picture of Old Faithful in all of its glory:

Here is a picture of our guide (on the right) waiting with one of the couples on our journey for the bus to arrive back at the lodge to pick us up and take us to our cabins for the night.

The next day was dedicated to exploring the park and its many, many features. Here is a picture of our group walking out on the raised walk to see Clepsydra Geyser:

And here is a picture of the geyser:

I thought at this point I would show you another family group sharing a journey.

On the way through Wyoming, we made stops at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming and at Dirty Annie’s in Shell, Wyoming:

Unfortunately, Dirty Annie’s closed this year. The have an interesting story posted in the local newspaper which can be found here. It details how two different couples built and expanded this icon over a 25 year period.

The next day we stopped at Devil’s Tower National Monument in Devil’s Tower Wyoming. This is the site of the dramatic alien encounter scenes in the move Close Encounters of a Third Kind, so I have to show you at least one picture.

The final big day of our journey include the Badlands of South Dakota as well as the the Crazy Horse Monument and Mt. Rushmore. Here are a few photos from these stops that exemplify shared journey:

Overall, it was a wonderful trip where we got to check off the states of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota on our quest to stay at least one night in every state during our incredible shared journey though life.

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